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lilithism1848 · 7 months

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Atrocities US committed against PRISONERS

The US currently operates a system of slave labor camps, including at least 54 prison farms involved in agricultural slave labor. Outside of agricultural slavery, Federal Prison Industries operates a multi-billion dollar industry with ~ 52 prison factories , where prisoners produce furniture, clothing, circuit boards, products for the military, computer aided design services, call center support for private companies.

Ramping up since the 1980s, the term prison–industrial complex is used to attribute the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Such groups include corporations that contract prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, private probation companies, lawyers, and lobby groups that represent them. Activist groups such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy.

The War On Drugs, a policy of arrest and imprisonment targeting minorities, first initiated by Nixon, has over the years created a monstrous system of mass incarceration, resulting in the imprisonment of 1.5 million people each year, with the US having the most prisoners per capita of any nation. One in five black Americans will spend time behind bars due to drug laws. The war has created a permanent underclass of impoverished people who have few educational or job opportunities as a result of being punished for drug offenses, in a vicious cycle of oppression.

In the present day, ICE (U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement), the police tasked with immigration enforcement, operates over 200 prison camps, housing over 31,000 undocumented people deemed “aliens”, 20,000 of which have no criminal convictions, in the US system of immigration detention. The camps include forced labor (often with contracts from private companies), poor conditions, lack of rights (since the undocumented aren’t considered citizens), and forced deportations, often splitting up families. Detainees are often held for a year without trial, with antiquated court procedures pushing back court dates for months, encouraging many to accept immediate deportation in the hopes of being able to return faster than the court can reach a decision, but forfeiting legal status, in a cruel system of coercion.

Over 90% of criminal trials in the US are settled not by a judge or jury, but with plea bargaining, a system where the defendant agrees to plead guilty in return for a concession from the prosecutor. It has been statistically shown to benefit prosecutors, who “throw the book” at defendants by presenting a slew of charges, manipulating their fear, who in turn accept a lesser charge, regardless of their innocence, in order to avoid a worst outcome. The number of potentially innocent prisoners coerced into accepting a guilty plea is impossible to calculate. Plea bargaining can present a dilemma to defense attorneys, in that they must choose between vigorously seeking a good deal for their present client, or maintaining a good relationship with the prosecutor for the sake of helping future clients.

European countries. John Langbein has equated plea bargaining to medieval torture: “There is, of course, a difference between having your limbs crushed if you refuse to confess, or suffering some extra years of imprisonment if you refuse to confess, but the difference is of degree, not kind. Plea bargaining, like torture, is coercive. Like the medieval Europeans, the Americans are now operating a procedural system that engages in condemnation without adjudication.”

A grand jury is a special legal proceeding in which a prosecutor may hold a trial before the real one, where ~20 jurors listen to evidence and decide whether criminal charges should be brought. Grand juries are rarely made up of a jury of the defendant’s peers, and defendants do not have the right to an attorney, making them essentially show-trials for the prosecution, who often find ways of using grand jury testimony to intimidate the accused, such as leaking stories about grand jury testimony to the media to defame the accused. In the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, all of whom were unarmed and killed by police in 2014, grand juries decided in all 3 cases not to pursue criminal trials against the officers. The US and Liberia are the only countries where grand juries are still legal.

The US system of bail (the practice of releasing suspects before their hearing for money paid to the court) has been criticized as monetizing justice, favoring rich, white collar suspects, over poorer people unable to pay for their release.

On Jan 26th, In Mississippi state penitentiary, an inmate was found hanging in his cell, in a string of deaths in the prison. This is the 12th death within a single month.

A photo surfaced of a November 2019 training class for prison guards in west virginia, showing 34 trainees doing a nazi salute. Only 3 people have been fired. A large number of prison workers, and populations in prison towns, are white supremacists.

A black-site interrogation warehouse in Chicago called Homan Square is notorious for the sexual abuse, torture, and disappearances of its prisoners. The main interrogator, Richard Zuley, applied torture techniques he learned at Guantanamo Bay at Homan Square.

On Oct 25, 2014, a mentally ill inmate, Michael Anthony Kerr, at the Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, NC, died of thirst after being denied water during a 35-day solitary confinement. Prison officials have said since Kerr’s death six months ago that they would investigate the events that led to his death, but no report has been issued and officials have not said when one would be.

On May 23rd, 2014, a mentally ill inmate at a Dade County correctional facility near Miami FL was tortured to death by prison guards. Darren Rainey was serving a two-year sentence for cocaine possession when he was forced into a locked shower by prison guards as punishment for defecating in his cell, says one inmate. Once Rainey was inside the shower, guards blasted him with scalding hot water as he begged for his life. Investigators determined that there was not enough evidence to charge the guards.

The Crime Bill of 1994, signed into law by Bill Clinton, increased the size of the US prison industry and dealt with the problem of crime by emphasizing punishment, not prevention. It extended the death penalty to a whole range of criminal offenses, and provided $30 billion for the building of new prisons, to crack down on “super predators”, a term used by Hillary Clinton to refer to remorseless juvenile criminals.

In the 1978 case, Houchins v. KQED, Inc. the Supreme Court ruled that the news media do not have guaranteed rights of access to jails and prisons. It ruled also that prison authorities could forbid inmates to speak to one another, assemble, or spread literature about the formation of a prisoners’ union.

In September 1971, prison guards killed George Jackson, a black Marxist and member of the Black Panthers in San Quentin prison (who had served 10 years of an indeterminate prison sentence for a $70 robbery), after he attempted to free himself and other inmates. Outrage over this, terrible prison conditions, and mistreatment by white prison guards, caused the Attica Prison Riot, in which 33 inmates and 10 prison guards were killed, and sparked dozens of prison riots across the country. In Attica, 100 percent of the guards were white, prisoners spent fourteen to sixteen hours a day in their cells, their mail was read, their reading material restricted, their visits from families were conducted through a mesh screen, their medical care disgraceful, 75% were there as a result of plea bargaining, and their parole system inequitable.

Many companies in the 1800s were guilty of using prison laborers, such as the Tennesee Coal Iron and Railroad Company. In 1891, the prison workers struck and overpowered the guards, and other neighboring unions came to their aid.

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tcwmatchmakingau · 8 months

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Old Flames

Prompt : What if Fives somehow matched with an old fling he had feelings for early in the war and they rekindle that old romance?

Pairing : Fives x Female OC

Rating : NFM

Word Count : 4,985 sorry :/

Content Warnings : Mention of death. Swearing. Sexual innuendo. Otherwise fluff and a bit of angst

The music was in a minor key and pumping, just the way Veera liked it. She loved to dance and her music loud but feeling a little self-conscious, (she was slightly older than the average patron), she kept to a darker corner of the dance floor. She’d not been to this club before but had already decided she would return, especially if this DJ was appearing… just, not on a night like tonight. Speed dating was on in the room next door and she’d come to support a work colleague who’d wanted company to be on the safe side. But that had worked to her own advantage, as she had arranged to meet a date of her own here. Veera had bitten the bullet! After a failed relationship with a clone officer, she’d decided to enlist the help of RTL Matchmaking, an agency dedicated to clones. Veera had always preferred letting nature take its course, so to enlist the help of an agency to speed up the process of finding a partner, went right against her grain. At least they were a not-for-profit! It took a hell of a lot for her to submit but the man she’d lost was going to take some beating, no standard fellow would cut it, she wanted to meet another clone but with an aversion to 79’s, she knew she needed professional help.

The first round of ‘speeding’ had finished and contenders were now hitting the main room, most of them remaining in their ‘chat up’ frame of mind. Veera’s friend was in round two, so she had another good hour of meat market diplomacy to contend with. Still, she was grateful for any chance to go out. One week shy of the Battle of Geonosis and the start of the war, Veera had found herself a short-term detainee in Coruscant’s immigration detention. She’d been deported from Raxus, accused of ‘Pro-Republic Views’. It wasn’t as black and white as that though, Veera was more a conscientious objector and had made some political comments that angered her regional governor, a man of dubious character. A deal had been struck that saw Veera and her university colleagues released from a labour camp but deported, “To their obviously preferred home world,” as punishment. Needless to say, being from a Separatist world during the height of the conflict meant life hadn’t been easy on Coruscant.

But now, Palpatine was dead, the war was over and Veera had freedom! She could be with whomever she wanted and go wherever she wanted and right now, she wanted to go to the bar! She ordered two bottles of water, downed one on the spot and thought to hell with it, “A morning concoction too, please!”

She’d barely finished her first sip when some boy saddled up to her, attempting a vulgar chat up line. The bartender heard and locked eyes with Veera, waiting to see her response and her first thought was to verbally bite a great chunk out of the lad but she restrained herself.

“I’m seeing someone,” she told him short and sweet. Tucking her bottled water under her arm, she took her drink in hand and moved to slip away.

“Are they here tonight though?” he followed up.

Veera just inhaled and walked away to find a table, concentrating solely on not spilling her drink as she watched the liquid swirling close to the rim of the glass. She thought a quick sip would lessen the chance of any spillage but didn’t see the group of animated young men advancing towards the bar and they were too busy talking to see her. It was an accident waiting to happen and sure enough, one ploughed straight into her! Next thing Veera knew, other than a hefty jolt, was caf and vodka up her nose and her water bottle hitting the floor. Swiftly registering that even more of her drink was dribbling over her mouth like a horseshoe moustache, she feigned looking for her bottle whilst quickly wiping her chin. One of the men had already retrieved it and was passing it to her with a, “Miss, your water.”

She was taken aback to realise he was a clone. It was then she realised another of the group had grabbed her hand to steady her drink, thus preventing any further disaster. Looking up at him with admittedly a little trepidation, to both apologise and thank him, she froze! She could tell by his expression that he too was doing a double take. But that goatee and tattoo, it was definitely him. She gasped for air.

“Fives!”

“Veera?”

Panic set in and her eyes darted around the club, “Fives, you’ll get into trouble!”

“Veera, the war’s over. I doubt we have to worry about that anymore.”

His comment brought her back to the here and now and she realised to her embarrassment she was on the cusp of hyperventilating. He had taken her other hand as well while the boys with him were looking at them in total confusion.

“I was never what they said I was,” she blurted out, surprising herself even.

“Hey cyar’rika, I never thought you were.”

It took a moment for his words to register and he looked at her with such a deep empathy she was transfixed.

“Um, this is awkward,” he continued. He gave her hand a tiny squeeze before letting go, “I’m actually here to meet someone. I don’t want to be rude but I’m about to be late.”

“Oh! That’s ok,” she swiftly answered. “I um, sorry to hold you up, I didn’t spill anything on you did I? Best let you go then. I’m supposed to be meeting someone as well anyway, so er –“

“Yeah well, uh, it would be nice to see you again… might even catch you before I leave tonight, if my plans don’t work out?”

“Sure, maybe later then…. unless you were here to meet with a Jane Doe to begin with?” she said jokingly. It was the name oddly given by RTL to identify herself to her match.

His mouth gaped, “Were you told to meet up with a John Doe?” he asked suspiciously.

Now Veera stood stunned, “Did you get that name from RTL?”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

“You’re John Doe?”

“Yeah, and you’re Jane Doe?”

“Yes!”

The lads were watching their conversation toing and froing as if watching a null-racket match.

“They matched us!” Veera stated.

“Looks like it,” he laughed a little. “Wow!”

“Yeah, wow! …Oh, well er… now I know why they gave us pseudonyms.”

“Yeah, bet they’re sitting in their office looking at their chronos thinking, any…minute…now!” Fives joked.

They took each other in for a moment before Fives clapped his hands together and turned to his junior clones.

“Ok gentlemen, it would appear I’ve stumbled across my date. You can all go now and sign up to the speed dating. We’ve got some serious catching up to do.” And with that, Fives led Veera to a table, sat her down first then joined next to her.

“I have to admit I’m staggered!” said Veera, “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again!”

“Me too…although, I wanted to see you again.”

“As did I but –” Veera let out a big sigh. “When RTL interviewed you, did you tell them about –?“

“Yeah, I did,” he preempted her words, “You?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “So, where do we start?”

Fives huffed in acknowledgement they’d have a bit to get through. “How about er… where do you work?” he teased.

Veera saw the funny side of his hackneyed first-date question, “Same hospital but I’ve moved to the ED, which I’d wanted all along. What about you, you’re out of armour, still an ARC with the Five-o-First?”

“Yes, although thinking of applying for an instructor’s position. It comes with a promotion.”

“Really? You’d be good at that that…. I’d like for you to get a promotion.” Veera then nodded at the lads who had come with Fives, “So, no Echo, although I’d dare say this wouldn’t be his scene, how is he?”

Fives paused and momentarily drew on the tabletop with his finger, “Actually, we lost him over a year ago, killed in action.”

Veera’s heart sank, “Fives! I am so sorry.” She instinctively reached out to hold Fives by the hand, “That wasn’t very smart of me, I didn’t think, I am so sorry.”

Fives placed his other hand on Veera’s to fully envelope hers but couldn’t bring himself to look at her, “It’s alright, time heals as they say.”

“Hmm, they say.” Veera brought her other hand into the mix and they silently sat holding each other.

“You know,” he said, turning to look at her, “it happened only about a week after we deployed.”

“So soon after I met you both!” It deeply unnerved Veera to think that on meeting Echo, his days were already numbered.

“And about two days after I was ordered to not see you again.”

Veera was silently registering his despondency when he scoffed, “The irony still gets me, only Echo could console me after losing you, then I would’ve given anything for you to console me after losing Echo.”

Fives was staring blankly at their hands watching his thumb slowly caresses her when he realised Veera was letting go to scoop him up in a hug and Force, he hadn’t realised how much he needed the gesture.

“I’m sorry. I thought Echo was such a lovely fellow.”

“Huh, you might not say that when I tell you he told me to dump you like a hot kebroot! He did a very good job of talking me out of wanting to defy my orders.”

Veera laughed as she sat back. “Oh, did he now?” she said with a knowing smile. “Guess I can’t blame him after what they probably said about me. Ultimately he was looking out for you. Bless him!” She raised her glass in a toast and took a sip of its remnants, offering Fives the rest. He took it and raised it in return.

“Yeah, good ol’ Echo,” he toasted, and then finished off her drink. He laughed to himself as he put the glass down with a faint sniff, “He was filthy on finding out you were Raxian.”

Veera wasn’t prepared for how much that would hit a nerve, “He wasn’t alone on that front.”

“Sorry, put my foot in it, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.” But as he lent on the table his memories kept swirling around in his head and it ended up too much for him, finally turning to face Veera and spitting out, “What in Sith’s Hell was going on?”

Veera retracted a little at his gesture and he was quick to apologise, taking her hand again and holding it firmly in both his. “I’m sorry it’s just, it drove me nuts, even after all this time it would crop up to bug me…. It couldn’t have been too bad or they wouldn’t have let you join a clone matchmaking service.”

Veera couldn’t help acknowledge his logic with a slight laugh.

“I’ll talk officer,” she joked, raising her hands in surrender, “I’ll tell you anything you want to know but I’m gonna need a drink while I’m at it.”

“I do want to know,” said Fives decidedly, “I do… Let’s get something.”

He turned the switch for the holo-menu on their table and they lent in to see what was on offer. Despite the uncertainty of what he would learn, he felt a pleasant familiarity being next to Veera and he hoped she felt the same, so close together their arms almost touching, and as they finalised their choices he’d sneak a look here and there, the length of her eye-lashes, the straight line of her nose and her cheek bones, or more so the plump bit right at the top, he was sure the girls would have a name for it when doing their makeup but he knew it as the part he loved to brush his thumbs over, if he could just hold her face in his hands. Force, he’d forgotten just how captivating she was.

“Oh let’s get both bottles!” she said.

“What?” he snapped back to paying attention, “Two bottles of wine?”

“Why not? The war’s over and we should live it up - they matched us up for a reason! Our friends can help with any leftovers.”

“Oh mesh’la.” He smiled at her and hit the order button with conviction. Turning to face Veera, Fives sat with one arm resting on the table, the other on the back of his chair and in a tone that hinted he was accustomed to giving orders, said short and sharp, “Ok then, from the beginning!”

Veera sighed deeply and made herself comfy in her chair.

“Before you lads got rec leave and we were looking after Wolffe in our hospital, I’d worked out that somebody was going through my apartment messing it up, as if toying with me. I was convinced the politician that got me deported had hired Raxian goons to intimidate me.”

Fives was taken aback.

“I reported it to the police and told Wolffe and my uncle, you remember he was Wolffe’s surgeon, during one of Wolffe’s check-ups, that’s when he started helping me out with bug detectors and the like. He knew I was from Raxus, he’d read my dossier but still, he was taking a bit of risk with me being a new arrival. What we didn’t know then, was that Homeworld were also going through my flat.”

“What? I thought they were just watching your place, not going through it.”

“Turns out they’d been watching the Raxians going into my joint so assumed I ran some safe house. Homeworld would go in and rifle around after the Raxians had been in.”

Fives nodded to hold off as their waiter arrived with their order. He then did the honours and poured Veera a glass of wine whilst she decided on something to eat from their mixed platters.

“So,” he continued, taking some food for himself, “you had two groups routinely rifling through your apartment.”

“Yes, then you clones got granted rec leave and Wolffe arranged that One-o-Fourth party at 79’s to thank our ward staff.”

“The night me met,” Fives smiled and Veera couldn’t help smiling back.

“Yes and because Homeworld were watching my place, they’d seen Wolffe visit but then saw me come home with you after our date.”

“And from that they accused you of entrapment?” Fives shook his head and helped himself again to the platter. “Did they not realise all I scored that night was a caf and data pad full of legal documents to read while you got changed for your night shift?” he playfully bemoaned.

Veera shrugged, “Bureaucrats, maybe getting invited in for caf and to read someone’s data pad is their idea of sexy.”

Fives laughed out loud.

“No, hang on!” Veera remembered, “You got a kiss when you later dropped me off at the hospital so you can’t complain!”

“I’ll complain I only got the one,” he said with a wink and a sip of his wine. He was pretty certain she’d blushed at that.

“Anyway,” she stalled to recover, “a few nights later, Wolffe visited and crashed on the couch while I went to work. They actually broke in that night and he caught one of them.”

“For real? Go Wolffie!”

“He then arranged a meeting with Fox for information on who he’d caught but it turned out he caught a Homeworld agent. That’s how we found out their involvement.”

“No way!” Fives laughed, “Incompetent lot.”

“Yeah, I have my opinions, anyhow, Wolffe’s meeting with Fox was then interrupted by Homeworld. Wolffe was told you and he were getting orders to sever contact but Fox argued it would be better if Wolffe stayed in touch as an informant.”

Fives paused for a few minutes to absorb the latest bit of information. “Hmm, so Wolffe go to stay onboard yet I was thrown overboard? Crafty bastard that Fox. It’s not for nothing he’s called that.”

Veera shifted a little uncomfortably.

“And Wolffe started informing on you?” said Fives surprised and with a little shake of his head, picked over the platters again and Veera joined him. “How did you find that out?”

“Let’s just say Wolffe told me without telling me, if you catch my drift. He thankfully didn’t believe them and disagreed with what they were doing, so, hell of a risk on his behalf!”

“It was either very trusting or foolish of him.”

“Since when have you known him to be foolish?” Veera was feeling a little pressured and pulled the menu up to order some more water. “Look a lot happened in the hospital and Wolffe came to trust me. I just can’t tell you what because that would be a breach of client confidentiality.”

Fives prickled. “And now the war’s over and we’re all friends again? That and or I take it they never found anything?”

“There never was anything.” Veera said pointedly.

“Well, not that they could prove,” he teased.

“You’d better be bloody joking!”

“Mesh’la, I tease you too cruelly.” He picked up the wine bottle and topped up her glass as if a peace offering. She took a sip and continued.

“After Wolffe caught the Homeworld guy, I think they were a bit embarrassed so they stepped up their surveillance and finally caught one of the others. He admitted they’d been hired by someone off-world to harass me, there was nothing more to it.” And with one hand on her heart and the other raised to swear an oath, she added, “And that’s the truth!”

Fives lowered his eyes and bowed his head in acknowledgement of her declaration.

“Now, I want to know what happened to you,” she blurted out.

Fives lent back in his chair with his glass of wine and pulled a platter nearer for easier pickings. “Well, we flew out the morning after our date and I got commed to present to the captain’s office. Had to stand to attention whilst this Homeworld officer strutted up and down with his chest puffed out, telling me I’d been seen at your place. He asked me how long I’d known you, where and how did we meet, where had we been, what did we do there, was ours a romantic relationship and if so, how romantic? Surprised he didn’t ask for the length of my cock.”

Veera choked on her wine and tried to scold him but Fives just laughed for having caught her off guard, “Oh they all gag, cyar’rika.”

She eyed him with a look of disbelief, “Fives, you are shameless!”

He laughed some more, then confessed, “Sorry, had to let off steam, I still get angry at the thought of that shebs’palon.”

Veera gathered herself then added her two credits worth, “I’m surprisedyoudidn’t volunteer the information.”

“Oh but I told them in my RTL interview.”

“Fives!” she shook her head..

“Which is clearly why they matched us up!” he said with a grin that implied he was either happy or done something wrong, probably both.

“Fives!!!”

Veera buried her head in her hands.

“Ok, I’ll behave. Back to my interrogation. The best bit was when he asked me, as if he were springing it on me, if I knew you were from Raxus? His face was priceless when I said you’d told me upfront and let me read your court documents. That pleasure however was short lived. He screamed at me that they were fakes you used to trick people –”

“What?”

“–and that known Raxian operatives had been seen going to your flat so you clearly were up to no good. I was lucky not to be getting charged with fraternisation but if I did anything after his dressing down, I’d get treason!”

Veera stared at him wide-eyed and silently contemplated the unpleasantness of Fives’ encounter. “I knew from Wolffe they were saying entrapment but didn’t realise they threatened you with treason. That’s horrible!”

“It was downright scary. He then told me to visit the doxies if I wanted company, I was ropable.”

“I’m sorry Fives. I really shouldn’t have agreed to that date.”

“Oh cyar’rika, I understand I’m impossible to resist,”

“Oh Fives,” Veera rubbed her forehead, “You got the impossible bit right,” she teased, “and for the record, my documents aren’t fake!” Veera said indignantly.

“Oh I know. I was having a heart to heart with Skywalker a month later, he put in a request for evidence so I could get a copy from the courts which I read in full.”

“Oh! You did your research…. I’m impressed, in a back-handed compliment kinda way.”

“I wanted to get to the truth! Then all I wanted was to let you know I hadn’t ghosted you but I couldn’t work out how. Then, time just…” he shrugged, looked away and went back to leaning on the table.

Fives’ honesty and honey eyes had warmed Veera as he’d told her his story. She felt guilt for what he’d been through, getting threatened by Homeworld.

“I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had ghosted me,” she finally said, “I gave you the notes to read for a reason. Wolffe told me what happened about two weeks after you deployed, said he didn’t want me thinking the worst of you.” She paused and inhaled deeply, “I was livid to learn I couldn’t see you again or explain anything.”

Silence followed as the two looked at each other with small expressions of hopelessness over the past. Then Fives swiftly moved in, cupping her face with both hands and kissed her. Veera found herself feeling a little surprised by his urgency but a cosiness soon took over and she felt suspended in time. His lips soft, his nose pressing into her cheek, warm. He moved gently, savouring the moment, making her feel she was going to melt entirely and needed to grasp onto him for dear life wherever her hands landed, as if that was going to save her from being rendered into a liquid on the floor. He pulled back to breathe but she kept her eyes closed, she didn’t want the feeling to evaporate.

“So you felt the same as me?”

He delicately pressed his forehead to hers as he spoke and Veera could barely whisper, “I did.”

She could clearly hear his breathing over the music.

“And now?” he asked.

“I’m so grateful for a second chance.”

He pushed his chair back a little further out of the light and pulled her up to straddle him. They sat compressing themselves together, behaving the best they could in a public space yet wanting to feel everything of the other, their kisses deep and sensuous.

Eventually they pulled back before things got out of hand but remained as seated, not breaking the hold their eyes had on each other for a long time, no words needing to be spoken. Then Veera laid against his chest and he gently held her. Feeling each other’s warmth they relished in the stillness.

“I want to take you home now,” he whispered.

“I want that too…but it’s rude to ditch our friends. Besides,” she said, sitting back up to look at him, “the wait will make it a thousand times sweeter.” She ran her hands through his hair and he looked at her as if to say you’re playing a dangerous game.

They were all flushed as they righted themselves back in their seats then topped up their glasses, sharing tidbits with each other from their platters.

But curiosity got the better of Fives, “Still can’t believe Wolffe was able to stay. Did you and he ever ….get together?”

Veera was caught totally off-guard.

“That look is admission enough,” he said with a faint, understanding smile. “Always thought he was keen on you.”

“How?”

“You didn’t see him looking down at us every five seconds at 79’s?”

Veera shook her head.

“Oh he was keeping an eye on us.”

Veera looked down at the table.

“I’m pissed he got to stay on while I got banished.”

“Well it’s not like he had any say in the matter, Homeworld ultimately made the decision and ordered him.”

Fives sat silently, finally nodding and screwing up his nose he drawled under his breath, “Still think Fox is a crafty bastard.” He poured himself another glass.

“Pour me one too please….and actually, they say it’s not proper to talk about an ex on a first date. Can we please not talk about Wolffe anymore, not today.

“Veera, forgive me, because I want to believe it was all unintended and we got caught up in the crossfire of war but because of you, I was threatened with charges of fraternisation and treason. That’s a hot date with a firing squad! It also tarnished my reputation with my seniors. I am well aware standard first date protocol means we discuss hobbies, art galleries and preferred pets but really, we are not on our first date and we have history, so I think I deserve some background knowledge if I’m to entertain this match-up any further. The One-o-Fourth extracted us from our mission. He knew I’d lost Echo and he even told me he got the same orders as me so I’m very pissed to learn that wasn’t true and he got to stay with you. Dammit, we’d even been in 79’s together drinking in Echo’s memory and you knew nothing?”

Veera couldn’t tell if it were nausea or hurt she was feeling but she couldn’t have looked good because it made Fives

swiftly work to make amends.

“Mesh’la, I’m sorry, I’m sorry –“

“If you’re feeling pissed,” said Veera firmly, “I get it….but piss on Homeworld, not Wolffe. You know what I think? I think he chose not to tell me because he knew I was already very upset and the news of Echo would’ve crushed me. He also felt that if we didn’t talk of military matters, they’d have no evidence they could twist against me, or all three us for that matter. He knew I like you. He also knew I liked him but I was a mess. Yes, I was sweet on him before I met you but thought I’d read him all wrong. You asked me out first. If it’s any consolation, we both felt guilt that he got to stay and that I’d dated you and that you were taken out of my hands before the natural flow of things could take their course. Those issues gnawed at us constantly.”

Fives went quiet. He sat for a long while with his arms crossed, his thumb stroking his bottom lip. The sound of Veera sniffing snapped him out of his reflections. She was dabbing her eyes and wiping her hands on her skirt when he took them in his and rested them on his knees.

“Forgive me, please? I don’t want any more sadness or hurt. I’m sorry.” He started sniffling himself. “Look, I can lay all my cards on the table and tell you about my exes and exploits but I went to RTL to find something serious. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would lead to a second chance with you! You knocked me out the park when I met you at 79’s. Then we dated and I thought wow, this girl’s unbelievable! No one since has ever made me laugh like you did, or made me think of them in awe. I’m so sorry I upset you.” He sniffed again and swallowed hard. The look of pleading on his face too much for Veera.

“Come here you,” she said and gently drew him towards her.

They kissed, slowly, simply, sniffled a bit in between then rested their foreheads together.

“I’m sorry too,” she said.

After a moment of regaining their calm she asked him, “Do you think they matched us cause they knew we needed to get this off our chests or cause we actually do match?”

Fives huffed a little laugh, “I’d like to think both.”

“You’re such a diplomat.”

Fives threw his head back laughing, “Me, a diplomat? Cyar’rika, you’ve been drinking,” he winked. “Oh I hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for the kids, I want to go home.”

The twinkle in his eye made Veera blush.

“You were going to take me out dancing, remember?”

“Hmm, fond memories of the night we met, another thing I couldn’t forget about you.”

Veera laughed, “You know the saying about dancing?”

Fives shook his head.

“The vertical expression of a horizontal desire, legalised by music.”

“Young lady!” he beamed.

“Come on hazard stripes! Let’s dance.”

“Hazard stripes? Oh girl…you’ve been warned!”

Fives and Veera’ companions eventually emerged from their speed dating. Having agreed to look for them together, they finally spotted them on the dance floor but they weren’t dancing, rather leaning against a pillar, enfolded in each other’s arms.

“I’ve never seen him so….peaceful,” said one of the clones.

“Yeah, especially not with a lady!” another added.

Veera’s colleague asked them what they meant.

“Well, he’s usually so animated, like flirty and joshing with them –“

“Or all over them!”

The boys laughed heartily.

Veera’s colleague however looked at them, enamoured. “Well, all I can say is there must be something to this RTL Matchmaking lot cause look at them both, that’s pure tenderness right there. Think I might sign myself up.”

“Hey, what for?” exclaimed the first clone, “You’ve just met me!”

“Uh, uh, cheeky! I’ve just met all three of you. The agency would’ve narrowed it down to one for me, saving me a load of grief. Anyway, let’s go get a drink, we might be here a while.”

#tcw matchmaking au #clone matchmaking au #501st Legion #reader request #AO3 link #prompt response

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mariacallous · 4 months

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St. Petersburg police arrested at least 3,000 migrants on December 31 and January 1, reports local outlet Fontanka. Novaya Gazeta Europe writes that the number was “much higher” and that men, women, and children were detained. The men were reportedly taken to police stations, while women and children were taken to a special detention center. Police cordoned off areas where they conducted raids and arrested people both on the streets and in apartments, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.

On January 1, military enlistment officers came to many of the detainees and offered them the option of enlisting in the Russian army as “volunteers,” reports Novaya Gazeta Europe. Officers threatened to deport the men’s families if they did not comply. Those without Russian citizenship were offered expedited naturalization if they joined the army. According to Novaya Gazeta Europe’s information, at least 1,500 people agreed to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. This number has not been confirmed.

The joint press service of the St. Petersburg courts reported that 31 people were charged with migration law violations. Two of those charged were released, two were fined, and 27 were deported.

In recent months, Russian authorities have been actively offering migrants from Central Asian countries expedited citizenship in return for signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry. Additionally, police have been arresting migrants with Russian citizenship during raids and taking them to military enlistment offices.

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magz · 11 months

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According to Homero Figueroa, spokesman for the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, Roberto Álvarez, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that the migratory alert issued by the United States last November has resulted in a significant decrease in tourism. At least 35,000 fewer tourists have visited in recent months due to the Dominican Republic migration alert.

[...]

According to the migration alert, Dominican Migration agents have been conducting widespread operations to detain individuals believed to be undocumented migrants, particularly those of Haitian descent.

[...] There are reports that detainees are being held in overcrowded detention centers under dire conditions. Detainees have no way to challenge their detention or access to food and restroom facilities. Detainees are held, in some cases, for days at a time before being released or deported to Haiti. [...]

In November 2022, the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic issued a warning to African-American U.S. citizens about the General Directorate of Migration’s increased operations aimed at detaining undocumented immigrants, particularly individuals of African-American descent. Álvarez reportedly emphasized that the Dominican Republic is an open country and receives the highest percentage of North American tourists, according to Diario Libre, a new publication of the Dominican Republic.

To Dominican Republic: Maybe don't be racist, colorist, n xenophobic if not want be seen as bigoted dystopic country?

Sincerely, a supposed Dominican with Haitian n American descent.

#tldr: dominican republic was antiblack antihaitian en masse n got consequences for it. n they crying about it #link post #o post #racism #xenophobia #colorism #sij #dominican republic

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manessha545 · 4 months

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Devil's Island

Island in French Guiana

The penal colony of Cayenne, commonly known as Devil's Island, was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.

The Second French Empire in 1861

French Guiana. Kourou's Dreyfus Tower (Tour Dreyfus) as seen from the Pointe des Roches, where the Kourou River meets the Atlantic. Taken by Arria Belli.

Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75 percent at its worst and was finally closed down in 1953

Devil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been accused of spying for Germany. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal extending for several years in late 19th and early 20th century France, exposing antisemitism and corruption in the French military.

Area: 14 ha

Closed: 1953

Location: French Guiana

Opened: 1852

Security class: Maximum

Devil's Island - Wikipedia

#Devil's Island Island in French Guiana

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stele3 · 2 months

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https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police-seek-clues-kansas-city-mass-shooting-with-3-people-custody-2024-02-15/

#destiel daily digest

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theinconvenientlifestyle · 4 months

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Israel is negotiating with Congo – it is unclear from reports which of the two neighbouring Congos – and other African nations to transfer the Palestinian people, according to reports in the Times of Israel and its sister site Zman Israel.

Both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) regularly see serious human rights violations, including massacres. A 2022 US Department of State report on human rights in the Republic, which is commonly known as Congo Brazzaville after its capital city to distinguish it from its neighbour – states that:

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference

and more.

In the DRC, human rights groups have noted massacres and other human rights violations. Amnesty International said in 2022 that the DRC:

continued to experience serious human rights violations, including mass killings in the context of armed conflict and inter-communal violence, a crackdown on dissent and ill-treatment of detainees. People from regions affected by armed conflict, including eastern DRC, were particularly affected amid mass displacement and a deepening humanitarian crisis. The authorities continued to show a lack of political will to hold the perpetrators of human rights violations to account. The right to education was violated.

The Times quoted a ‘senior’ security cabinet source and comments by Israeli minister Gila Gamliel:

Israeli officials have held clandestine talks with the African nation of Congo and several others for the potential acceptance of Gaza emigrants.

“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security cabinet tells [journalist] Shalom Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi quotes Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel saying at the Knesset yesterday: “At the end of the war Hamas rule will collapse, there are no municipal authorities, the civilian population will be entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. There will be no work, and 60% of Gaza’s agricultural land will become security buffer zones.”

The UK government has disgraced itself by continued attempts to transfer desperate refugees to Rwanda, attempts continually blocked by the courts – but the Israeli regime was the first to do it, sending around 4,000 Black refugees fleeing war in Eritrea and Sudan to Rwanda between 2013 and 2018 before discontinuing what it called ‘voluntary’ departure – similar to the ‘voluntary emigration’ euphemism it uses for its ethnic cleansing plan, alongside ‘humanitarian migration’.

Israel has an appalling record toward Black people, even Black Jews – and last year threatened to deport them, too. The SAGE Race & Class Journal notes that:

Ethiopian Jews who have been brought into Israel in several mass transfer operations, have found themselves relegated to an underclass. They are not only racially discriminated against in housing, employment, education, the army and even in the practice of their religion, but have also been unwittingly used to bolster illegal settlements.

Now, as well as the already-outed plan to force huge numbers of Palestinians out of Gaza into the Egyptian desert, Israel is actively working on plans to force more out of the Middle East altogether and into Africa. The Israeli regime’s war crimes continue to pile up.

Despite the similarities with the UK’s racist government, at the time of writing the UK’s so-called ‘mainstream’ media have not reported Israel’s plan – as has been the case with much of Israel’s racism and criminality.

#ukpol #palestine #uk politics #gaza

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beardedmrbean · 4 months

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The traditional event comes as the army, which took power in a military coup in 2021, faces growing resistance from allied groups in the country's north.

A coalition of ethnic armed groups has said it has captured military positions and border hubs vital for trade with China, posing a serious threat to the junta, according to analysts.

Independence Day in Myanmar has previously been marked by a parade in the capital Naypyidaw, followed by an address from junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

But the junta leader was absent this year, leaving a subordinate to read prepared remarks in his stead.

In a statement Thursday, the State Administration Council, as the junta calls itself, said it had "granted amnesty to 9,652 prisoners from respective prisons and jails as a gesture for the 76th Independence Day and to respect the peace in peoples' hearts and minds".

There was no immediate indication that political detainees were among those to be released.

In a separate statement, the junta said that 114 foreign prisoners were among those granted amnesty and would be deported "on bilateral relations and humanitarian grounds".

No further details were given.

In the commercial capital Yangon, friends and family members of prisoners gathered outside Insein prison, where detainees were to be released.

Myanmar declared independence from British colonial rule on January 4, 1948, after a long fight championed by General Aung San, ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's father.

Independence Day is normally marked with festive street games, marches, and gatherings in public parks and spaces.

This year, the celebration in Naypyidaw was much diminished – a far cry from the parade of troops, missile launchers and armoured cars that rolled through the city last year.

#nunyas news

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mercifullymad · 10 months

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Central to their production of an alternative archive is what [Mariam] Ghani and [Chitra] Ganesh call their “Warm Database.” Warm data, as Ghani explains, stands in opposition to the “cold hard facts” elicited by official interrogations of the detainees and that are used to produce, discipline, and contain the “terrorist.” To that end, the artists have posted on their website what they term a “Warm Data Questionnaire”; they invite all those who have been “affected by detention and/or deportation” to answer questions such as the following: Who was the first person you ever fell in love with? What is your favorite flavor, and what is the one food that if you had the choice you would never eat? Which family member are you the closest to? Describe a place you see when you close your eyes at night. Name a piece of music that is always running through your head. What is your earliest childhood memory? Which muscle do you use the most in your normal daily activities? The artists state that their intention is to collect material or information that would be deemed “useless” and without value in the eyes of the surveillance apparatus; this is precisely the information that is excised or never granted entrance in the first place in the official archive. If what is deemed as “religious fervor” or “anti-Americanism” are the only forms of affect that the security apparatus seeks to elicit and document as “proof” of the detainee’s terrorist status, the “warm data” gathered by Ganesh and Ghani instead constitutes an alternative “archive of feelings,” to use Ann Cvetkovich’s evocative phrase.

Archive, Affect, and the Everyday: Queer Diasporic Re-Visions by Gayatri Gopinath, in Political Emotions

#gayatri gopinath #my readings #surveillance studies #political emotions

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ukrainenews · 2 years

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Daily Wrap Up August 25, 2022

Under the cut:

Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine are operating 21 locations used to detain, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians, according to a new report by Yale University researchers backed by the U.S. State Department as part of efforts to hold Moscow accountable

Russian-held nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia disconnects from Ukraine grid for first time

Death toll from Russian strike on rail station rises to 25

Putin signed a decree to increase the Russian army to 2 million

“Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine are operating 21 locations used to detain, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians, according to a new report by Yale University researchers backed by the U.S. State Department as part of efforts to hold Moscow accountable.

The report, seen by Reuters ahead of its publication on Thursday, cites commercial satellite imagery and open-source information to identify with “high confidence” the separate locations - including facilities that previously served as schools, markets and regular prisons. It also identifies possible graves at one prison complex.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health that produced the report is a partner in a U.S. State Department-funded Conflict Observatory launched in May to capture and analyze evidence of war crimes and other atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Russia in Ukraine.

Nathaniel Raymond, the lab's executive director, said the findings showed Russia and its proxies had established a “system of filtration” to sort people in areas that fall under Russian occupation that represents a “human rights emergency.”

Reports of abuses had already emerged from the sites, including at a prison complex near Olenivka, where 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were allegedly killed in a blast there on July 29.

Yale researchers newly identified disturbances in the earth consistent with individual or mass graves as early as April, the report said, matching the account of a former prisoner who reported that detainees were forced to dig graves at around that time...

Thursday's report focused on Donetsk region, where Russia and its proxy the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic took control of most of the city of Mariupol in March. The city’s mayor said in April that about 40,000 civilians from the city had been forcibly moved into Russian-controlled territory or taken to Russia.

The report identified a system that brings in civilians in conflict-affected areas, puts them through registration and interrogation before they are either released, kept in detention, or transported to Russia.

Researchers verified the 21 locations with at least five independent sources and believe at least another seven sites are part of the filtration system and could be verified at a later date, Raymond said.

The U.S. National Intelligence Council in June said it had identified 18 possible locations used for filtration in Ukraine and western Russia.

The State Department on Thursday in a statement again called for Russia to halt all filtration operations and forced deportations and to provide outside observers access.

"President Putin and his government will not be able to engage in these persistent abuses with impunity. Accountability is imperative, and the United States and our partners will not be silent," the statement read.”-via Reuters

“Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was completely disconnected from the Ukrainian grid for the first time ever on Thursday after nearby fires interfered with power lines, state nuclear company Energoatom said.

It said that fires broke out in the ash pits of a coal power station near the Zaporizhzhia reactor complex - Europe's largest nuclear facility - and interfered with power lines connecting the plant to the grid.

"As a result, the station's two working power units were disconnected from the network," Energoatom said in a statement.

"Thus, the actions of the invaders caused a complete disconnection of the (nuclear power plant) from the power grid - the first in the history of the plant," it said.

The vast nuclear power plant supplied more than 20% of Ukraine's electricity needs and its loss would pile new strain on the government, which is already bracing for a difficult wartime winter of potentially crippling energy shortages...

Energoatom said the nuclear plant was still being supplied with power from Ukraine's energy system through a final power line between the plant and the coal power station.

But an energy official who declined to be identified told Reuters that the two reactors that had been disconnected were being powered by diesel generators.”-via Reuters

The reactor was later powered back up but remained disconnected from the power grid.-via CNN

“25 people have now been confirmed dead after Russian forces attacked a train in the village of Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk oblast on Wednesday, the Kyiv Independent reports. Four trains caught fire and the deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, reported on Telegram that two children were killed in the attack.”-via The Guardian

“Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree according to which the number of Russian Armed Forces will be increased by 137,000 to 2.04 million people.

Source : "RIA Novosti"

Literally : "To establish the staff strength of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the amount of 2,039,758 units, including 1,150,628 servicemen."

Details : The decree enters into force on January 1, 2023.

According to the previous decree, dated November 17, 2017, the Russian forces numbered 1,902,758 soldiers and officers, including 1,013,628 conscripts.”-via Pravda (Ukrainian language source)

#Daily Update #Ukraine #Russia #War in Ukraine #Chaplyne #Zaporizhzhia

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mariacallous · 1 year

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Since 2016, hundreds of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and contractors have faced internal investigations into abuse of confidential law enforcement databases and agency computers. The alleged misconduct includes a swath of unlawful behavior, from stalking and harassment to passing information to criminals.

ICE says these databases are vital tools for enforcing the law. However, agency records of internal misconduct investigations reveal that they can also be used to subvert it. They show for the first time how ICE employees allegedly exploited their access to these databases to unlawfully search or disclose sensitive information, including medical, biometric, and location data. And they detail how access to these databases can be misused to carry out personal schemes and vendettas.

According to an agency disciplinary database that WIRED obtained through a public records request, ICE investigators found that the organization’s agents likely queried sensitive databases on behalf of their friends and neighbors. They have been investigated for looking up information about ex-lovers and coworkers and have shared their login credentials with family members. In some cases, ICE found its agents leveraging confidential information to commit fraud or pass privileged information to criminals for money.

In total, ICE employees or contractors have been investigated for misusing agency data or computers at least 414 times since 2016. In nearly half of those incidents, the misconduct triggered investigations by the Office of Professional Relations (OPR), a division responsible for investigating allegations of serious misconduct, both criminal and noncriminal.

Of these serious misconduct cases, 109 were “substantiated” or “referred to management” after an internal investigation by OPR fact finders. Those include a Vermont-based enforcement and removals officer accused of “online solicitation of an intellectually disabled adult”; a special agent who received gifts from a Colombian drug trafficker in exchange for information; a Virginia deportation officer who altered electronic records to assist a family member; and an ICE attorney who stole immigrants’ identities in an attempt to defraud credit card companies.

ICE categorizes allegations as “substantiated” or “referred to management” if the evidence shows that the alleged misconduct is more likely to have occurred than not—a lower standard of proof than in criminal investigations.

The records do not include what disciplinary measures, if any, were imposed on ICE employees or contractors whose allegations of misconduct were substantiated by investigators.

While many of the records lack enough detail to discern the full nature of the allegations, two dozen investigations were categorized as criminal. And in at least 14 incidents, the records explicitly say that agents were investigated for allegedly using agency databases or computers to harass someone or make threats.

In March of 2021, for instance, a special agent in McAllen, Texas, allegedly used information from a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database called TECS to threaten a coworker. And in July 2020, employees at the Port Isabel Detention Center were investigated for illegally accessing a detainee’s medical records and sharing videos of detainees.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

An ICE official familiar with the way internal investigations are conducted at the agency reviewed the records WIRED obtained. The official, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media, says that because ICE agents collectively query confidential law enforcement databases “many millions of times a year,” the presence of a few “bad apples” is inevitable and not particularly surprising.

But legal experts and privacy advocates who reviewed the data resoundingly disagree with the ICE official’s characterization of the issue as likely isolated to a handful of problematic officers.

“This isn’t about a few bad apples, it’s about a tree that’s rotten to the core,” says Albert Fox Cahn, the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP). “There’s no version of mass surveillance that’s compatible with civil rights.”

Erik Garcia, an organizer and program manager with the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, a Southern California-based migrant advocacy organization, says ICE agents’ abuse of confidential databases “very much is the culture of abuse and unchecked power at ICE. It’s part of the culture of policing generally, which makes me question whether they should be collecting this data in the first place.”

ICE is already under increased scrutiny for how agents are misusing the law enforcement tools at their disposal. In February, for example, the DHS inspector general released a report detailing how agents at ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division conducted illegal surveillance of cell phones using a controversial tool called a cell-site simulator.

Earlier this month, a WIRED investigation revealed how ICE used customs summonses to demand data from elementary schools, news organizations, and abortion clinics in ways that experts say could be illegal. “Calling ICE a rogue agency doesn’t even quite get at how bad the problem is with them,” said Emily Tucker, the executive director at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, in response to those findings. “They are always pushing to the limits of what they are allowed to do and fudging around the edges without oversight.”

Law enforcement abuse of databases is far from unique to ICE agents. In the past decade, local police around the US have repeatedly abused their access to confidential databases. In 2016, an Associated Press investigation found that police officers across the country misused confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, and journalists.

The misconduct records that WIRED obtained detail similar allegations. However, due to ICE’s sprawling access to data sets from federal, state, local, and private entities, experts are particularly concerned about how an agency with a prolific history of misconduct could abuse these tools.

Last May, Tucker and three colleagues coauthored a report called “American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century.” Their report, based on a review of ICE spending transactions, found that the agency has amassed an enormous trove of databases containing billions of data points that enable the agency “to pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time.”

“The databases ICE employees can access contain almost everything you might want to find about someone: who they are, where they live, where they drive, and who their family is,” says Nina Wang, a policy associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology and one of the “American Dragnet” coauthors. “All of that access to bulk data leaves the door wide open for misconduct.”

ICE is one of 22 agencies housed under DHS. In 2021, the American Immigration Council used DHS privacy and compliance documents to compile a list of databases and information systems that DHS uses in relation to immigration law enforcement. The list captures the breadth of databases that ICE officials can access, some of which are referenced in the misconduct records.

Among the databases that ICE agents allegedly misused were those containing medical records, license plate reader data, and biometric data. One of the most widely misused databases in the records is the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system, software developed by the data-mining firm Palantir that serves as the primary database for information collected by ICE during criminal and civil investigations.

According to documents obtained by the Intercept, ICM allows ICE agents to access a kaleidoscope of data that reportedly includes information about “a subject’s schooling, family relationships, employment information, phone records, immigration history, foreign exchange program status, personal connections, biometric traits, criminal records, and home and work addresses.”

Representatives from Palantir declined to be interviewed for this story. But in an email, Courtney Bowman, the company’s director of Privacy and Civil Liberties, pointed WIRED to public documents detailing ICM’s oversight mechanisms, including its ability to log and record every query an individual makes.

Much of the ICM misconduct that internal investigators flagged involves employees looking up information about themselves—so-called self-queries. While this kind of misconduct might seem harmless, Adam Schwartz, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, asserts that it speaks to a culture of impunity at the ICE. “When you have officers taking a database intended for a specific purpose and subverting for self-gain, it exposes a lawless and dangerous mindset,” Schwartz says.

To Fox Cahn of STOP, the presence of so many self-queries in the data might say more about how ICE monitors its databases for abuse than about the volume of underlying misconduct. Fox Cahn suggests that the likely reason so many self-queries appear in the records is that it’s easy for agencies to spot this kind of behavior. “They should really be going query by query to make sure that someone has a legitimate reason to do a search,” he says.

Because ICE did not answer specific questions about how it monitors misconduct, it’s unclear how the agency spots abuse of its databases.

Every expert we spoke to, including the current ICE official, says that because the vast majority of misconduct probably goes undetected, the records the agency released likely only detail a small fraction of the total abuse.

“If you’ve got hundreds of abuses, you have a systemic problem that needs a systemic solution,” says Schwartz. “This is a flood of misconduct,” he adds. “It raises serious questions about whether this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

WIRED categorized each record using the case summary for the incident to attempt to discern the nature of the underlying misconduct and the database or type of data that was abused. Each of the 414 allegations of misconduct in the database includes a short case summary of the incident, information about the employee involved, and a brief summary explaining how an internal investigation was conducted. WIRED is making the raw data available here.

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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Exclusive: Dominican Republic expelled hundreds of children to Haiti without their families this year

Hundreds of children have been expelled from the Dominican Republic without their parents, according to UNICEF, amid a sweeping government push to remove suspected undocumented migrants from the country.

The United Nations Children’s Agency has received at least 1,800 unaccompanied children delivered by Dominican immigration authorities into Haiti since the year began, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

Many arrive without identity documents and are “shipped” into the country amid adult deportees, the spokesperson also said – raising the question of how Dominican authorities ascertained that they belonged in Haiti at all.

An image provided to CNN by the Haitian aid organization Groupe d'Appui des Rapatriés et Réfugiés shows people deported from the Dominican Republic on November 17 near the Malpasse border crossing. CNN obscured parts of the image to preserve their privacy. - Courtesy GARR

Back in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, immigration detention centers sometimes hold parents without children.

The Dominican Republic has long sought to reduce the Haitian population within its borders. But the latest wave of deportations this year is taking place with stunning speed and breadth, prompting critics to accuse the Caribbean nation’s government of racial profiling, chaotic execution, and a disregard for human rights and families as immigration agents hustle people out of the country.

The United States embassy in the Dominican Republic has warned Black and “darker-skinned Americans” that they risk “increased interaction” with Dominican authorities amid the immigration crackdown. In a statement released Saturday, the embassy described “reports of the unequal treatment” of US citizens based on skin color.

But Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has rejected calls to stop the deportations, arguing that the country already supports neighboring Haiti more than any other country in the world.

The Dominican Republic’s migration directorate did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. But in a statement released after the publication of this article, the migration agency denied any cases of minors being separated from their parents since 2020. It quoted Venancio Alcántara, the migration agency’s director general, describing “specific procedures” for dealing with minors.

“Every time minors are accompanied by their parents, and when the parents have not been located, minors are referred to the Children and Teenagers National Counsel, which will take care of them,” he said.

Allegations of ‘degrading treatment’ and mistaken identities

In October alone, 14,801 people were sent to Haiti from the Dominican Republic, according to records by Haitian aid organization Groupe d’Appui des Rapatriés et Réfugiés – an average of 477 people each day.

Social media videos appearing to show Dominican immigration authorities conducting raids have caused panic among Haitians and people of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic, with even some who are legal residents telling CNN that they are afraid to leave their homes.

Haiti’s Communications Ministry called on its neighbor to respect “human dignity” on Sunday, citing the “stunning images…that have drawn attention to inhumane and degrading treatment inflicted on Haitian citizens in the Dominican Republic.”

The immigration dragnet has swept up some people regardless of their nationality or legal status, according to former detainees and experts interviewed by CNN, as well as the US embassy statement.

One Haitian man, who lives and works legally in the Dominican Republic, told CNN that immigration agents broke into his home in the middle of the night and refused to listen to his arguments.

“I was sleeping in my house with my family. At 3 a.m. (local time), a group of immigration officers broke down my door and arrested me. They did not ask me for my papers or anything; they did not let me speak,” says one man of Haitian origin, whose legal work permit was in the process of being renewed when he was arrested.

“They just grabbed me and took me away; I told them I had papers and they did not even listen,” he added.

He was detained overnight in squalid conditions before being released the next day.

Video that he secretly filmed and shared with CNN showed a concrete building with cramped stalls piled with food and blackened with waste, and a narrow room with no beds, where at least 15 other detained men waited.

“They treat them like animals. Once they put them in jail, they leave them there to sleep on the floor without feeding them. They destroyed people’s documents and in some cases, people had no chance to show their papers,” said Sam Guillaume, a GARR spokesperson.

He added that his organization has received several Dominican citizens in Haiti who were erroneously seized and deported.

A years-long effort

The Dominican Republic’s effort to remove people of Haitian origin from the country goes back years.

In 2013, the country’s constitutional court controversially ruled that Dominicans born in the country to undocumented parents should be stripped of their citizenship – rendering tens of thousands of people stateless, with no other country to call home.

Known colloquially as “La Sentencia” or the Sentence, it “created a situation of statelessness of a magnitude never before seen in the Americas,” according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Many Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic rely on short-term residency permits to remain in the country legally through a “regularization plan.” But Kuzmova, the legal researcher, says she hears “over and over” that they risk being deported while they wait to renew those permits.

“When it comes to Haitian migrants, the residence permit is valid for a year, and they take a year to renew it. So the reality is that if this person who is eligible for a permit gets picked up on the street, they’re not going to have a valid document on them,” she says.

“What people are saying is that when you get picked up with an expired card, they destroy it. And that was basically the proof that you had of being in the regularization plan.”

A new presidential decree, issued last week to create a specialized law enforcement unit to combat squatting, could also be used to target people of Haitian origin living on historic sugar plantation villages known as bateyes, which once drew large numbers of migrant workers.

“The people living there now are largely retired old people who worked on the plantations, and they don’t have proof of title. So that could be another way to instrumentalize police to enforce deportations,” Kuzmova says.

As Haiti struggles to recover from interlinked political and security crises, the UN has repeatedly called on the Dominican Republic to stop sending people there.

“Unremitting armed violence and systematic human rights violations in Haiti do not currently allow for the safe, dignified and sustainable return of Haitians to the country. I reiterate my call to all countries in the region, including the Dominican Republic, to halt the deportation of Haitians,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk earlier this month.

Two days later, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader responded with derision, describing Turk’s statement as “unacceptable and irresponsible” – and saying he would instead accelerate deportations.

#Dominican Republic expelled hundreds of children to Haiti without their families this year #racism in Hispanola #Haiti #DR #Slavery in 2022

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